Archaeometry 50, 1 (2008) 114–128 doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2007.00379.x *Received 26 October 2006; accepted 14 February 2007 †Corresponding author: e-mail robert.hedges@rlaha.ox.ac.uk © University of Oxford, 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Oxford, UK ARCH Archaeometry 0003-813X © University of Oxford, 2008 XXX Original Articles The diet of individuals at the Neolithic tomb of Hazleton North R. Hedges, A. Saville and T. O’Connell *Received 26 October 2006; accepted 14 February 2007 CHARACTERIZING THE DIET OF INDIVIDUALS AT THE NEOLITHIC CHAMBERED TOMB OF HAZLETON NORTH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, USING STABLE ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS* R. HEDGES, 1 † A. SAVILLE 2 and T. O’CONNELL 1,3 1 Research Laboratory for Archaeology, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK 2 Archaeology Department, National Museums of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, UK 3 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions were measured on human and faunal bones, sampled from the Neolithic chambered tomb of Hazleton North, Gloucestershire, UK. The values were used to characterize the diet of the burial community as a whole. Humans were higher in δ 15 N by 4.5–5.0‰ relative to animal δ 15 N, from which we conclude that, based on currently accepted interpretations of isotopic data, the humans consumed a diet that was very high in meat or animal products (75% by weight of protein). Comparison was also possible between cortical and cancellous femoral collagen, with the results showing no significant difference for the adult humans. The sample of human isotopic values showed little variability, in contrast to that found in the domestic and wild animals from the site (including cattle, pigs, sheep and deer). We suggest that this is due to local environmental differences, rather than to environmental change over time or physiological differences between individual animals, and that this pattern is likely to hold for many other archaeological sites when analysed with sufficient statistical weight. KEYWORDS: STABLE ISOTOPE, BONE, PALAEODIET, CARBON, NITROGEN, NEOLITHIC © University of Oxford, 2008 INTRODUCTION The stable isotope composition of human and animal bone collagen is now increasingly frequently studied for the information it provides on dietary sources and feeding behaviour. Here, we present the isotopic analyses of human and faunal remains from the Neolithic site of Hazleton North. Such results add to the increasing body of data on Neolithic human stable isotopic values. More specifically, however, they permit the study of the isotopic variation within a well-defined assemblage of humans and animals. The site contained a large number of human and faunal remains, all well preserved and well recorded, and intensive dating of the site shows the period of use of the site to be comparatively short (possibly considerably less than 300 years). This has enabled a large-scale comparison of the humans to a substantial number of herbivorous mammals, as well as comparisons of different human skeletal elements; such a comparison is rare, especially for sites of this period. Hazleton North is an example of a Cotswold-Severn Neolithic chambered long cairn, situated on the Gloucestershire Cotswolds approximately 13 km (8 miles) east of Cheltenham and